


castaway

by havisham



Series: havisham's SASO 2017 works collection [67]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Shipwrecked, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Remix, cannibalism jokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 18:34:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11789028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/pseuds/havisham
Summary: It was only supposed to be a three hour cruise, but Rin and Sousuke find themselves shipwrecked on a desert island and have to depend on each other for survival and more.





	castaway

**Author's Note:**

> This is a remix of [this story](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/22341.html?thread=13430341#cmt13430341) written by dw user fickle, written for SASO 2017 Bonus Round 6: Remixes.
> 
> Read that first! This story picks up when they stop being polite and start getting real. LOL. /old

“They say the human flesh is supposed to taste like pork,” Rin said on the hundred and fifteenth day of their shipwrecked ordeal. He was grinning and Sousuke could have sworn that his teeth looked sharper than they had before. He wouldn’t put it past him to have whittled them into points. Island living was desperately boring, after all. 

Sousuke squinted at him suspiciously. “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

Rin shrugged. “Just making conversation.” 

“You planning to make tonkatsu out of me, Rin?” Sousuke said, going back to mending the nets with his fishbone needle. 

“Don’t be stupid, Sousuke,” Rin said, annoyed. “I don’t have the breadcrumbs.” 

*

When they’d first washed up on the island, their combined survival skills were, to say the least, extremely weak. Every day was a struggle for survival, as well a struggle not to strangle the other lone survivor of their doomed honeymoon cruise. Sousuke had steadily loved Rin since he was young. He thought that having Rin to himself for an extended period of time would the culmination of his fondest wishes. 

He’d been completely wrong. 

He still loved Rin, but he now knew that he would’ve loved Rin even more if they weren’t trapped in the Blue Lagoon together, without nearly as much as sex as the scenario would’ve suggested. 

Then Rin found the hatch. 

Rin wasn’t a TV watcher (another flaw of his) but thankfully, Sousuke was. He warned Rin from going down alone or going down at all. But since like hell Rin was going to listen to him, so Sousuke did the next best thing -- followed Rin into that dark hole in earth, with a torch providing some precarious light. At least, until the generators kicked in and the lights came on. 

Sousuke immediately went looking for a counter, some doomsday device. He didn’t find it. What he did find was Rin, sitting in a galley style kitchen, opening a can of sardines with a very large bowie knife. Rin licked off a drop of oily tomato sauce from his lip and said, “I think this must’ve been some rich guy’s bolt hole or something. Maybe a fallout center?” 

“When do you think it was built?” Sousuke asked, looking around. The decor was mostly industrial, with some very few concessions to comfort. A few hours later, he would discover the wine cellar and his impression of the intended comfort of the shelter would improve. 

“Dunno,” Rin said, turning the can, looking for an expiration. He turned green when he found it. “... The seventies.” 

*

They moved into the hatch, leaving their rudimentary hut on the beach behind. Every day, they’d leave the hatch in the morning and move around the island -- usually alone. Sousuke didn’t quite know what Rin did, but he found himself keeping mostly to the interior of the island. He assumed Rin spent most of the time along the shore. In the evening, they’d meet up back at the hatch -- usually Sousuke would have caught some small furry thing (although once he’d gotten lucky with a wild boar -- but he hadn’t felt very lucky at the time -- the boar had almost killed him) while Rin usually had a fish or two. 

The original builder of the fallout shelter had been a Westerner, it was clear. He’d packed enough food to survive the apocalypse, but there was nary a bottle of soy sauce anywhere. But they made do with what they had, cooked the the food and talked a little of the day’s activities and drink the wine. 

It was nice, in a way. Sousuke thought they could maybe live their whole lives like that. 

At least, he thought that until a coral reef snake bit Rin. Sousuke had gone with Rin to the beach that day, and he was lounging in the shade of a coconut tree when Rin came limping out of the water and collapsed next to him. 

Sousuke cracked open his eye, ready with a quip when he saw Rin’s pale face and how he was shaking. “Rin,” he said sharply, “what happened?” 

“I don’t remember how many rings it had,” Rin said, wiping the sweat from his face. “I don’t think the venom went in --” But Sousuke was frantic. He wiped off the sand on Rin’s tanned thigh and saw a lightly bleeding cut and saw red. Without thinking about it, he pressed his lips against Rin’s thigh and sucked. 

Rin pushed his head away, scoffing a little. “Dumbass, that doesn’t work --” 

They needed to be rescued, now. Sousuke wanted to set some of the taller coconut trees on fire, but Rin opposed that, saying that they’d be destroy one of their best sources of food for nothing. In the end, they set some of the other, smaller coconut trees on fire. 

Sousuke watched the sky anxiously. No one came, the same as always for the last five hundred days they’d spent on the island. And beside him, Rin weakened, even though he would’ve rather died than admit it. 

Sousuke would’ve set the whole island on fire, if it meant that he could save Rin. 

The last night, they sat on the beach, the moon huge and bright hanging over them and the coconut trees burning still. Rin poked Sousuke on the ribs and Sousuke grunted, trying to pretend that he hadn’t been sleeping all the while. 

“Hey,” Rin said with a small smile. “Hey, Sousuke. Remember that field trip we took in third grade? Where you got lost at the art museum and cried until I found you again?” 

“I remember that a little differently,” Sousuke said. He hadn’t cried. Probably. 

“Yeah, you were a total crybaby,” Rin said, leaning in like he was sharing a secret. “I’m glad I found you though. I’m glad that I kept finding you, again and again. Next time, we’ll have longer together.” 

Sousuke swallowed something hard in his throat. “Rin, don’t tell me that …” 

Rin kissed him and Sousuke sighed into it. He wanted nothing more than this, forever. If Rin was going to go, then there was nothing for it but for him to follow him into the dark once again. 

*

“ _Hey, are you okay?_ ” said a voice speaking accented English above him. Sousuke jerked awake and stared warily up at his would-be rescuer. He noticed right away that Rin was no longer with him, though the impression of his body was still on the sand next to Sousuke. 

“I’ve been shipwrecked for two years,” Sousuke drily. “Of course I’m not okay. Where’s Rin?” 

“ _Sorry, I don’t speak Japanese_ ,” said the guy, ruffling his bleached, yellow hair. “ _If you’re talking about your friend, the ship’s doctor is checking him out right now_.” 

“Can I see him,” Sousuke said in English, as clearly as he could. English had never been his best subject, but what skills he’d had was badly degraded by now. The guy nodded vigorously and helped Sousuke stand. 

“ _How did you find us?_ ” 

“There was something weird going on the the navigation last night and the captain noticed the lights --” The guy gestured vaguely to one of the larger coconut trees. Sousuke stared at it. He hadn’t lit it on fire. Had Rin, almost dying …? 

“ _Come on, the ship’s waiting,” said the guy. “My name’s Darien, by the way. The ship’s the_ Shalimar _out of San Diego._ ” Sousuke was only half listening. He just wanted to see Rin again and reassure himself that they had both made it out of this island alive.

**Author's Note:**

> Actually, according to this Wikipedia article that I do not recommend you read late at night like I just did, [human flesh tastes sort of like veal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism_in_humans#Modern_era). I've never had veal, so...


End file.
